Debunking Pseudoscience Twoodle
This blog looks at the pseudoscience twoodle by @GoodwinMJ and the implications of human genetics being a big complex family tree. It also looks at the rapid explosion of humans out of Africa and the mixing of humans since antiquity.
Ewan Birney
Deputy Director General of EMBL, Director of EMBL-EBI. I have an insatiable love of biology. @ewanbirney@genomic.social. I also work with ONT, Dovetail + GeL.
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This is part right (“we’re on a cusp of further genetic understanding of health etc) and then straightforwardly *wrong* on its implication (“there are inherent differences between groups”) and this pseudoscience twoodle by @GoodwinMJ needs … debunking >> https://t.co/MKEL2b1PTS
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
Basically humans don’t come groups - we exploded across and out of Africa very quickly (in evolutionary time) and we’ve moved and mixed ever since - in antiquity as well as now
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
This means human genetics is a big complex family tree (formally a set of trees across the genome) and ultimately is just very messy. Unlike other species who adapt to environments by genetics we mainly have not, rather we’ve done far far quicker via behaviour
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
The currency often used groupings of humans - “Race” in US speak, “ethnicity” in UK/European speak are largely arbitrary and both geographically and time inconsistent.
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
They do tap into visible characteristics- most obviously skin colour - which is predominantly genetically determined but this is a v small amount of the genome and you can’t place someone’s genetics by their skin colour
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
(I won’t burden this thread with the origin of this terminology too much but it is wrapped up in 19th cent science aligned to the continued justification of slavery and later on formal or informal segregation)
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
Furthermore, against the pseudoscience tropes, outcomes of these bonkers big groups is all over the shop; eg “Black Africans” have better standardised 16 year exam results than “White British” in the UK
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
I know most people … don’t care about the science. This is an identity politics drive and the age old destructive human habit of forming groups.
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
But … don’t conjure up genetics to support identity politics and thus pseudoscience genetic justification racism needs … robust dismissing. It is just not how genetics works and there is no data to support it.
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023 -
(A note on my credentials- I am an expert in human genetics and genomics and track / analyse many human phenotypes in many settings)
— Ewan Birney (@ewanbirney) April 16, 2023